Potholders

I'm relatively new to the blog world. I know.. I can be slow about things at times. I had heard about blogs, but all you hear about in main stream media are the radical political types who go too far complaining about someone of some importance, or the occasional news story about the person who got a little too mouthy in a negative way about their employer and got fired for it. To be honest, it was the movie Julie and Julia where I really learned about the blog world. I love that movie! I wish I had found her blog as she was writing it and followed along, but I'm not sure I hadn't even heard the word blog back then.

When I discovered I could make purses, that lead to internet searches and the wonderful discovery of all the sewing and craft blogs. After a quick lesson from Mr.ShowMe on how to subscribe to a blog I was on my way. Imagine my surprise when I then discovered that these talented blog creators give stuff away! I've yet to win anything, mind you. I'm horribly unlucky when it comes to drawings, but it's still fun to enter.

One such blog, had a potholder making contest. Now I knew I'd never win, I'd never made a potholder, in fact I'd never even quilted anything, but we need potholders, so I thought I'd give it a try. I did this one by quilting some scraps together. It turned out ok, but a little wonky.

It's not quite as wonky as it looks in the picture. I propped it up on something and it wasn't sitting level. Here's a picture of the back.

Not bad.. but not great either.
I went back through my fabric stash and found a piece of fabric that I had fallen in love with. It was one of those fabrics that I didn't want to use because I was afraid if I cut it, I would mess it up somehow. You've had fabric like that, haven't you? But I got brave and used some. I did a fussy cut and quilted around the pattern on the fabric.

I liked the effect from the quilting like this, but it was still wonky. So after a bit more tweaking, I ended up with this.

I know! Right? I backed it with a rust colored corduroy fabric and seemed to conquer the wonky factor. Oh! And I almost forgot. For quilt batting, (since I didn't have any), I used an old mattress cover for a bed size that we don't even own anymore. And if you're wondering where the loop is, I didn't forget it. I don't hang up my potholders anyway, so I didn't put one on it.
So I figured out how to make a decent potholder, and I also learned that even wonky potholders will keep you from burning your fingers when you're taking a hot dish from the oven!